Mexico Babymoon

Terry and I got on a plane the day after the US elections and headed out to the sunny Mexican Riviera. On the plane I had my first doubts: we didn't really like the so-called "all inclusive" cruise we took for our honeymoon, so I was starting to get nervous that we wouldn't like the all inclusive hotel we'd booked for our babymoon. The fears melted away as soon as we walked into the gorgeous open-air lobby, with a giant thatched roof and an open central area with "jungle" through the center, populated by scarlet macaws, peacocks, several monkeys and something that looked like a chicken-sized guinea pig with longer legs.

The staff was amazingly friendly, the food was about as decent as you'd expect (but not more), but I thoroughly enjoyed waking up to the tropical morning and enjoying a little Mexican chocolate to start the morning off. After that, the day was ours to do as we pleased. We took a couple of special trips. One took us to this giant theme park thing called Xcaret. It was one part tropical animals, one part adventures (snooba, snorkling etc), and one part Mayan cultural extravaganza. Another day we took a day trip to Chichen Itza to tour the most famous Mayan ruin. Other days we just took it easy at the hotel, reading books by the pool, eating chocolate ice cream, sipping blended lemonade, or swimming in the super salty beautiful ocean.


On the beach in front of our hotel

In the lobby of our hotel, in front of the open air center section (with macaws and monkeys and whatnot!)

The hatchery at Xcaret, a sort of Mayan culture meets nature meets tropical zoo sort of theme park.

On a cool spiral building in Xcaret just after doing our underground river snorkling adventure.

In front of awesome lagoon right by the sea turtle hatchery in Xcaret.

The main temple at Chichen Itza. Named one of the new seven wonders of the world. Incredibly precise agricultural calendar where the movement of the sunlight across the temple accurately marks the solstices hundreds of years later.

In front of the awesome temple of the warriors and thousand columns.

Self portrait in front of the main temple.

The natural sinkhole (cenote) from which the entire compound derives its name: Chichen Itza.

On the way back from Chichen Itza our tour stopped off at a different natural freshwater cenote where you could swim.

The cenote looks all totally exotic lost world, eh?

Self photo above cenote, where you can see all the tiny swimming people.